 In spite of the absence of parliament, former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar spent over Tk 1 crore in the last two years for purchasing medicines for non-existing lawmakers and sending parliamentary delegations abroad. Of the amount Tk 54 lakh was spent for purchasing medicines for the medical centre of the Parliament Secretariat, which provides lawmakers and its officials with medical facilities, and over Tk 50 lakh was spent for foreign trips of "parliamentary delegations". Speaker Abdul Hamid informed the chief of the all-party parliamentary probe body, advocate Fazle Rabbi Mia, of this on Tuesday and asked him to look into the matter since the probe body is yet to track the spending of over Tk 1 crore. The probe body has already detected huge corruption in the Parliament Secretariat during the tenure of the former speaker. Fazle Rabbi yesterday told The Daily Star that he got the information about the expenditure and that the probe committee will investigate how the money was spent. Officials in the Parliament Secretariat said they did not know how the money was spent in the name of purchasing medicines in the last two years and that they do not know who took the medicines form the medical centre during the period. "Most of the time medical officials told us that medicines were not available at the centre. But now we come to know that half a crore taka was spent for purchasing medicines!" a senior official in the Parliament Secretariat said. The former speaker made a number of foreign trips during the last two years forming "parliamentary delegations" with his personal officials. Besides, he has spent Tk 11 lakh during 2002-2004 to purchase shirts, shoes, ties, sandals, mirror stands, jewellery, crests, tablecloths, embroidered quilts, pearl necklaces etc. A report prepared by the Parliament Secretariat says those were bought as gift items to be used by the former speaker's office. As per the report, 400 pieces of silk-ties were bought in 2000 at a cost of Tk 1.96 lakh and eight pieces of embroidered quilts were bought in 2003 at a cost of Tk 76,080. The report says the Parliament Secretariat also bought 84 pieces of crests for Tk 1.55 lakh for the office of former deputy speaker Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui, and 85 pieces of crests for Tk 1.62 lakh for the office of former chief whip Khandaker Delwar Hossain. Asked about these expenditures, parliamentary probe body chief Fazle Rabbi said they are yet to receive any information about this but the committee will look into the matter. Meanwhile, documents show that the last secretary to the Parliament Secretariat, ATM Ataur Rahman, took over Tk 3 lakh from the Parliament Secretariat in January last year "for collecting designs of parliament buildings" while he was travelling the US. The official document on payment of the money to the former secretary says Ataur Rahman collected 201 pieces of designs of parliament buildings from the Architectural Archives of Pennsylvania University at a cost of $3,639. It says he borrowed the money from his relative in the US. He also spent $775 for transportation from Philadelphia to Pennsylvania University, it adds. Officials at the Parliament Secretariat questioned the authenticity of the expenditure in the name of collecting the designs of parliament building. |
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